


Fish 'n fries

by imsfire



Series: Esper 'verse [9]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Yavin 4 colony setting, a family going out for supper, what Captain Rex did next
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-11 04:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18423126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/pseuds/imsfire
Summary: A little family go out for supper in the post-war colony on Yavin 4.





	Fish 'n fries

**Author's Note:**

> For Rebelcaptain Appreciation Week 2019; day three prompt, Favourite AU.

There was a delicious smell as they came down the street to the newest shack by the harbour.  The afternoon sun was hot but Captain Rex had built a rough-and-ready roof of thatched leaves and bamboo, and there were tables and benches laid out beneath it, and a door into the kitchen area. 

The chef was inside the kitchen, bent over the big oil fryer, with his cap on at a jaunty angle.

“Uncle Rex!”  Esperanz started waving. “We’ve come for tea!”

“Don’t sell tea here, young ‘un,” Captain Rex called back, and added his eternal rider “Just fish ‘n fries, the best supper in the world.”

Fish he caught himself, with his little boat, and fries made from the tubers the farms in the valley sold him.  A batter recipe he claimed to have learned when he was a young ‘trooper, long, long ago.  A few extras like sausages and bean fritters, herb sauce, plum ketchup.

He did sell drinks, of course; beer and juice.  And there were carafes of fresh drinking water on each table, beaded with condensation.

Jyn sank down gratefully on a bench seat, cradling her belly. “The usual for me, love,” she told Cassian.

“Do you want salsa, mama?”

“Of course I do, Stardust.  Salsa and eggy sauce and ketchup, please.”

Cassian picked his son up and carried him over to the servery counter; held him up to look at the pieces already fried and waiting to be served and eaten. “What sort of fish do you think Mama would like, mijo?”

“The biggest one.  Biggest in the whole wide sea!  Mama’s hungry!”

“Biggest fish in the sea is onta-shark, little pip,” Rex said, shaking the fryer basket as he lifted a new batch of fried tubers out.  He bumped it down into the holder to drain and turned, waving his hands to illustrate an imaginary fish longer than an arm-span. “Bit large even for your mama and her appetite.”

“Next biggest, then,” Esper retorted, full of confidence that his Uncle Rex could provide that.

Cassian said “I think Mama wants a nice piece of galeos, same as usual, nene.  Y tú, ¿qué quieres?”

“Biggest,” Esperanz said firmly.

“Onta-shark for you too, chiquito?” Cassian hitched the little boy up again as he started to wriggle. “¿Estas seguro?”

Esperanz pointed at the largest piece of battered fish on the hot-plate.  It was probably galeos, like Jyn’s favourite; but a huge piece, a portion large enough for two hungry adults.  If he bought that piece of fish for Jyn she’d groan before she finished it, and she was eating for two again.

Even though she insisted that was an old grannies’ tale and all a pregnant woman needed was a healthy diet and the right vitamins. 

There was certainly no way it was a portion suitable for their three-year-old.

“Pero, ¡mira! Mijo, hay pescados pequeñitos – hay salchichas rebozadas – o ¿quizás te gusta los champiñones?  ¿Champiñones con salsa verde, mmm?”

“Quiero el gran pez,” Esper said, pointing.

“Pescado.”

“No, el gran pez, ahí.” Still pointing. 

Cassian gave up and accepted the inevitable.  Explaining that a fish had a different name once it was dead and cooked was a minefield he preferred not to explore just now.  Esperanz had a robust sense of ethics already and Captain Rex’s Fish Bar was not the place for a debate about the morality of a non-vegetarian diet.

“Vale, bien.  ¿Y fritos?”

“Yes please, papi.  Lots of fritos, please.  Una ración grande para mí y lo mismo para mama porque ella tiene _hambre_.”

Rex was stifling a chuckle behind his beard.

“Okay,” Cassian said. “That sounds excellent.  Okay.” He set his son down on the decking and gave him a quick tickle. “And if your eyes are bigger than your tummy, mama and I will eat all your leftovers, eh?”

“You always eat them anyway, even if you say you won’t.” Esper wriggled and giggled, and suddenly turned and hugged him round the leg. “Papi, papi, papi, tengo hambre!”

“Pues sí.”

There’d be easily enough for all three of them with that huge bit of fish, and maybe one more serving.  Fish and fries for supper, on a bright summer’s day after a busy afternoon.  They deserved it.  And Esper was always hungry, these days.  He was growing so fast.

“Okay.  So, Capitán, please may we have that big bit of galeos, and one of the sausages in breadcrumbs?  And two big portions of fried tubers?”

“One fish ‘n fries and one sausage ‘n fries, coming up.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please help me correct my Spanish grammar, it's bound to be off as it's a very long time since I had occasion to speak Spanish properly!


End file.
